A map of all the water in the solar system
We've just learned that there's strong evidence that saltwater flows on the surface of Mars. It's another reminder that water is everywhere in our solar system, whether it's ice, vapor, or liquid. Here's a handy guide to where all the water can be found. More »
Scientists find evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars
We've known for a while that there are frozen water deposits just beneath the surface of the Martian poles, but now it seems that there are seasonal streams of liquid water that wind across the red planet's surface. Today, a group of scientists announced their discovery in Science, and told io9 what this liquid water might be like - and whether it changes the prospects for life on Mars. More »
Martian snowstorms are the ultimate blizzards
While the climate on the surface of Mars is pretty much completely dry, it's still possible that, every so often, it snows on Mars. These hellish storms would move at hurricane speeds and dump four inches of snow every hour More »
Would a Soviet Moon landing have forced the US to go to Mars?
Yuri Gagarin's historic flight was just one of many Soviet victories in the Space Race, but the United States still won the big victory when they landed on the Moon. But what if the Russians had gotten there first? More »
Why we might send humans to the Mars moon Deimos before we go to Mars itself
Our best chance to send humans to Mars will be in the mid-2030s, but the Red Planet might not be our final destination. It might actually be much easier and just as effective to land on Mars's moon tiny Deimos. More »
A wandering Jupiter stunted Mars's growth and reshaped the asteroid belt
Mars is about half Earth's size and only a tenth its mass, which doesn't make sense. By rights, Mars should be as big as Earth and Venus. Now we know why Mars is small...it's because Jupiter is a big bully. More »
The Gorilla On Mars Isn't The Weirdest Thing We've Spotted There
All hail King Kong of Mars! Eagle-eyed experts spotted this gorilla in one of the pictures sent back by the Spirit Rover. Of course, NASA's trying to cover it up. But it's not the weirdest Martian we've found so far. More »
The Case For Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
Fifteen years ago, aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin published The Case for Mars, and issued a clarion call to his fellow scientists, and the people of Earth. We need to plan our Mars colony, and we need to do it now. More »
We could be running out of time to send astronauts to Mars
America's current plans for human space exploration seem horribly slow, considering we won't leave Earth's orbit until 2025 and won't reach Mars until 2035. Worse than that, solar radiation spikes could keep us grounded for decades more. More »
The NASA spaceship that could take humanity into deep space…if we had the money for it
This is the concept design for the Nautilus-X, one of NASA's ideas for crewed deep space explorer. This craft would be launched from the International Space Station (or some other orbital platform) and could take six astronauts on long missions ranging anywhere from one to twenty-four months. More »
One of the coolest space action sequences we've ever seen
Carrie-Ann Moss copes with a zero-gravity fire in this stunning sequence from Red Planet. How do you put out a fire when the fire extinguisher sends you flying in the opposite direction? Trinity's on the case. More »
Experiment Confirms Viking Actually Did Find Organic Compounds on Mars 30 Years Ago
Decades after scientists said NASA's Mars missions had found inconclusive evidence of organic compounds on Mars, a new study says not only are there organics on Mars, but Viking found them back in the 1970s, and scientists completely missed them. More »
Why Martian sunsets are blue
This stunning video of a Martian sunset was captured by the Mars Rover Opportunity. Although most movies code the Martian color scheme as red, the sunset shines blue. Find out why. More »
The fastest way to send humans to Mars is to not worry about bringing them back
All current plans to send human explorers to Mars suggest the first mission is 25 years away. But a one-way journey could actually be possible very soon, and it might be just what we need to kick-start human space exploration. More »
The Rough Guide to Solar System Mountaineering
The great challenge for any climber is to conquer each continent's tallest mountain. But tomorrow's climbers can consider a far more extreme challenge: leaving Earth to climb the tallest peaks of the solar system. Here's how they'll do it. More »